The refrigerator refers to an apparatus that is used for the purpose of storing and maintaining freshness of food for a long period of time. The refrigerator has a food storage chamber configured to maintain low temperature by a refrigeration cycle for maintaining freshness of food.
In consideration of the different types, characteristics, storage periods, and the like of food, a plurality of storage chambers in a refrigerator may have different characteristics, so that a user may select a suitable storage method for the food. The representative storage chambers include a refrigerator chamber and a freezer.
The refrigerator chamber maintains a temperature of approximately 3° C. to 4° C. to store food and vegetables and maintain freshness of food for a long period of time. The freezer stores frozen food in a frozen state for a long period of time, and maintains a below-zero temperature to maintain the quality of frozen food, and to make and store ice.
In recent years, the refrigerator has been developed to perform various functions in addition to the aforementioned traditional functions of the refrigerator. For example, in the related art, to enjoy cool water from the refrigerator, a user needs to open the door and take out a bottle of water stored in the refrigerator chamber. However, in recent years, a refrigerator has been developed to include a dispenser outside the door, supplied with water cooled by cold air in the refrigerator chamber, so that the user may obtain cool water without opening the door. Refrigerators having a dispenser with an additional function of purifying water have also be developed.
When a user intends to drink a beverage or water with ice, the user may need to open a freezer door and remove the ice stored in an ice tray in the freezer.
However, it is inconvenient in that the user needs to open the door, take out the ice tray, and thereafter, separate the ice from the ice tray. When the door of the freezer is opened, cold air in the freezer escapes to the outside, which increases the temperature in the freezer. Accordingly, the compressor performs additional work, and thus, energy may be wasted.
Therefore, an ice maker is suggested to supply ice from the freezer to an outside of the refrigerator without opening the door.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the freezer F includes an ice maker 1 at an inner upper portion of the freezer F, configured to make ice using cold air in the freezer F, an ice bin 2 in the freezer F, separates from the ice maker 1 and configured to store ice made by the ice maker, a dispenser 4 on the freezer door 3, that dispenses ice to the outside without opening and/or closing the freezer door 3, and an ice chute 5 that guides the ice in the ice bin 2 to the dispenser 4.
However, a capacity of the freezer F decreases due to the volume of the ice maker 1. Since the ice maker 1 has a heavy weight (e.g., including the weight of a motor that drive the ice maker and the ice bin), it is inconvenient to disassemble and/or transfer the ice bin for other uses and/or clearing.
A conventional refrigerator may be disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2009-0013540 (Feb. 5, 2008).